If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Made it to something like 1.3 million today. I'm going to buy a Type 9 Heavy when I can afford it and go for the Anaconda, because why not? I could probably buy a Cobra and all the trimmings with what I've saved already.

....
How is it on hardware requirements - what systems do you guys have and how is it performing?
And any idea what the likely requirements are going to be for solid frame rate (it's 75Hz, right?) & maximum eye candy on the consumer release of Oculus Rift?

I'm running the beta on high on a stock i2500K @ 3.3 Ghz, 8GB RAM with a Geforce 770 GTX with 2GB VRAM and get around 70 fps in stations and around 140 in space.

The control schemes will definitely put off someone that isn't au-fait with simulator games, so my chief concern with Elite is that a large chunk of the potential audience will be put off by it's accessibility. Also, there's far too much 'busywork' having to put down your landing gear manually and the like.

I'm sure I'll get used to it, even if I have accidentally pressed what appears to be some kind of 'super thrust' button instead of my menu button on a couple of occassions and shot my ship into the space station by mistake.

However, I am enjoying it and know that the reward for my commitment will be worth it. It's enough like Elite, and different enough from Frontier (not a fan) to work for most audiences if only they can make it a bit easier to get to grips with. Funnily enough I found docking at spaceports to be a doddle - the hardest bit is remembering all the button presses to get to the menu to request docking ;)

Ah yes, boosting when you meant to request docking permission. I have done that a few times. Not to mention losing my Eagle 5 times in a row because the Feds deployed their crack suicide squad to defend the Impeccable. And yes, docking is an absolute cakewalk compared to the original Elite.

By the way, has anyone considered opening a thread in the Game Clubs subforum to organise group stuff? I`ve thus far stuck to solo mode since I`d heard absolute horror stories about multiplayer.

Hah, I`ve had my weapons deploy and start firing on their own for some reason. Oh, and this happened as I was lifting off of a landing pad. Turns out, stations have defence turrets on the interior as well as the exterior.

On an almost completely unrelated topic, does the Cobra Mk. 3 have any particular advantages over the Viper, apart from the cargo space? I`ve tried to use the Viper as a sort of boom `n` zoom fighter, but it has a habit of overheating if you so much as glance at a C1 beam, never mind a C3/4 weapon or a full volley of burst lasers. I`ve been wondering if the Cobra has slightly better heat dispersal.

On an almost completely unrelated topic, does the Cobra Mk. 3 have any particular advantages over the Viper, apart from the cargo space? I`ve tried to use the Viper as a sort of boom `n` zoom fighter, but it has a habit of overheating if you so much as glance at a C1 beam, never mind a C3/4 weapon or a full volley of burst lasers. I`ve been wondering if the Cobra has slightly better heat dispersal.

E:D definitely needs a comparison screen when buying new ships.

- If the sound of Samuel Barber's "Adagio For Strings" makes you think of Kharak burning instead of the Vietnamese jungle, most of your youth happened during the 90s. -

Hmmm, so I've spent about 14 hours now with Elite and have traded enough to get a SpaceTransit for moar trading (but haven't yet bought it) but I'm somewhat confused about combat, having recorded a total of zero kills so far.

I haven't upgraded my sidewinder with better weapons but it seems to me that against anything other than another Sidewinder I'm neither putting out enough damage to whittle down shields / hull before someone else appears and steals my kill, or in the case of fighting Eagles we're just dancing round each other until I get bored and jump away towards the next station. I'm guessing that's partly because I'm a rubbish noob pilot, but is fighting genuinely pretty pointless unless you upgrade your weapons?

For that reason I'm avoiding all the plentiful 'go to this system, kill people' missions. Well, that and the fact that I'm not entirely clear whether going to those systems and killing *whoever* will result in me being 'Wanted' and then shot to bits by that factions space stations. I see missions asking me to kill pirates but I'm not sure I've ever seen a pirate unless anyone who is interdict's me (lol) is counted as a pirate.

Flight is great, graphics top notch and sound is superb but I do feel like I'm just flying from station to station trying to trade because that's all I know how to do...

You can hunt bounties in Sidewinders with your Sidewinder to make some money before you try the missions that might have you targeting better ships than yours, but it being beta means combat isn't as fleshed out as trading just yet. You can make enough to buy a Cobra Mk.III doing a fairly simple trade route (fairly simple = only one jump in the hauler) in an acceptable amount of time. Personally I skipped the Cobra, kept saving and got the Type 6 because, as I said, combat is far less lucrative than trading at the moment and I'd quite like to have an Anaconda. But I haven't played for some time to avoid burning out before the game is released.

I have been able to rack up quite a few kills in the stock Sidewinder. The main thing is to (if you`re using M+KB) set your mouse deadzone to 0 and use relative mouse control, use the strafe keys to position yourself outside the enemy`s arc of fire, and use the blue sweet spot to get your manoeuvrability as high as possible. You should try to push into dogfighting range (<1 km) as much as you can, since that`s where the Sidewinder excels.

The Fed distress call combat zone around Eranin 2 is a great place to practice dogfighting, especially if you side with Eranin, since the Fed fighters have basically zero firepower and are about as durable as wet cardboard. I have seen a few NPC Cobras show up occasionally, and these can smash your ship in a few seconds, so keep your distance. Also, the Federation fighters are quite quick, but the AI is very, very slow, so you will be rammed by them and it will one-shot kill you, a lot.

If you want to hunt bigger ships in a Sidewinder, don`t. Eagles can be killed, but a Cobra or a Viper will murder you unless you`re a very good pilot. I have been able to kill a few with gimballed burst lasers and a lot of luck, but you should really avoid them unless you have something that can match them blow-for-blow.

I ran off three NPC Cobras in a Sidewinder once. The AI isn't quite up to speed at operating when it has wingmen, unfortunately, since I should have been completely trounced in that fight, rather than being able to pick them off one at a time. Also, I wasn't able to destroy them since my guns were too puny to actually destroy them before they went and escaped.